More Pandemic Puppy Prep

Pandemic Puppy Prep was productive over the weekend.

I have exterior doors to paint but I am terrible at selecting colors — all those choices paralyze me! I blame this on Catholic schools, which were great for a lot of things but I never learned the art of making choices — I just put on my green plaid uniform everyday.

Luckily, I now have Friend Suzanne. Armed with her handy Sherman-Williams paint wheel thing, Friend Suzanne can find the perfect color for anything.

So far she has selected the correct blue for my office at the university (with perfectly coordinated trim, mind you), and the perfect color and trim color for the remodeled kitchen and dining area (and because it all flows together — the entry, living room and hall).

I sent out a Color S.O.S. with photos of the roof to assist and had the two color choices for the exterior doors within the hour. Suzanne is like a Magic Eight Ball for color selection!

Since I was in the painting mood, I decided the whelping box needed an update. Yes, I am nesting.

I called around to find a paint store where the employees were wearing masks and Sherman-Williams in Missoula was the winner.

I am a bit obsessive about toxic things and so the poor sales guy was prompted to call a manager to discuss which of their paints was lowest in the VOC department and so on — they were all so nice and helpful (and masked).

While he did that, I stood in front of the approximately 14 bazillion paint chips and tried to pick a color for the whelping box. I looked automatically for the familiar green plaid of my uniform but nope — I was forced to channel my Inner Suzanne and make a different choice.

It wasn’t pretty but in the end, I did it.

Well, I actually did it about ten times but I finally just handed the guy a chip and said, “this one.”

Later — when asked what color I selected — I could not remember. It turned out to be this kind of a teal/green/blue color. Not plaid but I like it!

And so the whelping box was painted and after a few stressful hours searching for the pins that hold the corners together (life in a construction zone is messy), we were able to set it all up.

There is a cushioning mat under the vinyl floor, and that all sits on top of the living room floor.

I have some touch-up painting to do, more linens to wash, hemostats to sterilize, and so on — this is quite a production and very exciting.

We expect to see a drop in Daisy’s body temperature when she is within 24 hours of whelping. I started documenting her temperature this morning to establish a baseline -- it was 100.6. I will check her temperature four times each day at roughly the same times.

The soonest we would expect puppies is Friday but the actual due date is Saturday/Sunday. I am confident she will honor my request to deliver at least some of the 47 puppies that appear to be inside her on Sunday so that the litter birthday can be the same as mine. I have also requested a daytime delivery — good thing days are long this time of year and Daisy is such a Cooperator!

And that is the latest from Puppy Central.

Puppy Prep

Sparkle got a fun gift yesterday.

Renee sent a box of those perfect and adorable cookies to Sparkle to thank her — Sparkle was the Virtual Specialty’s Vanna White, and Renee won cool prizes one day when Sparkle pulled her number.

Numbered balls in a wading pool with water — like bobbing for apples only different.

Thank you, Renee! Such a fun and kind surprise.

Daisy was dragging a bit at the end of the one-mile walk yesterday and so she will just do an easy 1/2 mile walk every other day now — until she says that is too much. I have no idea how much weight she has gained as that would involve an unnecessary trip to the vet but she is really big.

We also will not be x-raying for a puppy count for the same reason — there is no reason to create even the mildest of stress-responses in a pregnant dog because those responses involve stress hormones/physical responses that developing puppies do not need. We will count puppies as they come out.

The results of Daisy’s nomograph arrived yesterday. This tells us two related things. First, Daisy has continued immunity from her puppy vaccines — four years later.

This is normal — annual vaccines are not needed and even every three years is too much for most dogs. We run titers to know when/if to vaccinate adult dogs — Sparkle is at almost seven years with Distemper and Parvo immunity provided by a single puppy vaccination, for example.

The nomograph also tells us when maternal antibodies are expected to be sufficiently low in the puppies such that a vaccination will be effective. A vaccine given when the maternal antibodies are still in play is ineffective, may provide a false sense of security, and represents an unnecessary vaccination burden.

I am not anti-vaccination! Vaccinations save lives. Rather, I am a fan of targeted and effective vaccinations — not unnecessary ones.

We started the process of locating and washing puppy linens yesterday — given the reality that we still have reconstruction going on, that was no small feat! In addition, I nominated the litter for the BMDCA Futurity yesterday. This has to be done before the litter is born and so I checked that off of my long To-Do List.

We hope to have a productive Friday here at Puppy-Prep Central — I hope your Friday is all things happy and healthy.